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The Ten Commandments give us our identity (Who am I?), purpose (Why am I here?) and goals (Where am I going? How do I get there?) that are necessary for our spiritual development.
Rather than the Law and the Spirit of God being in opposition to each other and the latter usurping the former, as some teach, we will see in this study of the Torah passage יִתְרוֹ Yitro (“Jethro,” Exodus 18:1–20:22) that we receive the “new birth” in Mashiakh Yeshua1 Hebrew for Christ Jesus via both Sinai and Spirit. This is the “new covenant” that Yeshua sealed with His blood. We need both Law and Spirit for God to create the new heart — new desires — within us.
As we get to know the Holy One, we receive a “new life,” without the guilt of sin, transgression or iniquity. He shows us how to walk in His way in righteousness; we yearn to walk as Yeshua walked. Yeshua did not sacrifice Himself for us so that we would not have to walk as He walked. And the appointed times of Heaven (“feasts of the LORD”) are memorials of what Heaven has done for us, where Heaven is leading us, and reminders of how to walk that Way.
Who am I?
We are Israel, grafted in as wild branches into the cultivated olive tree. Israel is:
- “a kingdom of priests”; “a royal priesthood” (Exodus 19:3–8; 1Peter 2:9–10)
- “My son, My first-born” (Ex. 4:22–23; Hos. 11:1)
- “sons [and daughters] of God through faith in Messiah Yeshua” (Gal. 3:26)
- “children of God” (1John 2:28–3:5)
Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.
Ex. 19:3-8 NASB
The Tabernacle was the place where the people gather to meet with God. The task of the priests who worked in the Tabernacle were there to help the people come closer to God. Each priest had a task to do within the tabernacle complex and there were different levels of the priesthood with the High Priest at the top.
Each person in Israel plays a part in bringing the people closer to God.
“But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”
1Peter 2:9–10 NASB
The Creator of Heaven and Earth is above what is on earth. Those who go astray from Him receive correction or if they are truly rebellious, those who go astray are hardened in their rebellion, but regardless, God uses both kinds of people to teach others about Himself and to move the course of history according to His plan.
“Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.”
1John 2:28-3:5 NASB
The 10 Commandments are how we show that we love God and our neighbor. If we don’t show our love, and it’s all just talk, this is not persuasive.
“If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
1John 4:20 NASB
Connections between the Ten Words
Jewish, Orthodox Christian, Catholic and Protestant views on the Ten Commandments have come up with slightly different numberings of the commands:
The traditional Jewish interpretation of the 10 Commandments includes the idea that the first set five commandments are intimately connected with the second set of five commandments. Here’s one way to group them:
Commandments 1 & 6: Don’t remove the LORD.
(1) I’m the LORD
(6) Don’t murder, erasing the image of the LORD
Commandments 2 & 7: Don’t pervert the most important relationships in Heaven and Earth.
(2) No idols, perverting the most important relationship
(7) No adultery, perverting the second-most important relationship
Commandments 3 & 8: Don’t kidnap/hijack the LORD’s reputation.
(3) No blasphemy. Don’t drag down the reputation of the LORD.
(8) Don’t steal, especially kidnapping.
Commandments 4 & 9: Don’t pervert the testimony of Heaven on Earth.
(4) Remember the Shabbat, memorializing the LORD as Creator.
(9) Don’t testify falsely.
Commandments 5 & 10: Don’t usurp what’s not yours; remember the source of your blessings.
(5) Honor your parents for their role in your existence.
(10) Don’t covet; quell your desire to seize what’s in the realm of another.
The 10 Words dominate Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy shows us the rich meaning of the 10 Commandments and how those simple commands permeate many parts of our lives. They show us God’s reputation and how we can either lift up GOd’s reputation or bring it low based on how well we practice the 10 commandments in our lives.
There are things that bring us closer to God and things that move us away from God. The lessons of clean vs. unclean whether it’s in the foods we eat, the clothes we wear or how we deal with our bodily functions, all these rules are written to help us be better people.
What is your mission in life?
- The Shema (“Hear, O Israel”): Deuteronomy 6:4ff
- Second-greatest commandment: Leviticus 19:18
- “You will know them by their fruits”: Matthew 7:16
- “Deeds of the flesh” vs. “fruits of the Spirit”: Galatians 5:19–25
- “New Covenant”: Jeremiah 31:31–34; Ezekiel 36:25–26
- “This is eternal life, that they may know You”: John 17:3 (cp. John 6:40)
God tests us like a gardener tests his soil. Is the soil acidic, neutral or basic? What will grow well in this soil vs. what will die in the soil? How healthy are the fruits and veggies that come from the soil? What treatments are needed to improve the soil? We need to be the kind of soil that accepts whatever tests and treatments God gives us to prepare us for His kingdom.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Jeremiah 31:31–34 NASB
Who broke the covenant? God or the people? The people of Israel broke it. We know that God’s instructions are the right way to live, but we often break them. We are fortunate that God is patient with us and He is willing to write them on our heart. God does not treat us like robots. We have to want to go His way. He will never force us to go His way. Heaven calls us to walk in the right way but we need the change of heart, which only He can provide.
“For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
Ezekiel 36:24–27 NASB
God wants to bring us into His rest but He can’t bring us into the Kingdom until we are willing to allow Him to clean up those parts of us that are deep in sin and to fill them with His Spirit. If He allows those who are deep in sin into the Kingdom, they will create the same conditions that required God to send the people into exile in the first place. If He cleans them up but they don’t allow the Spirit to enter, this leaves an opening for the evicted demons to bring spirits that worse them themselves to make the person’s condition worse than it was before.
Yeshua did not abolish the Law. He didn’t come into the world so that we wouldn’t have to follow the Law. Otherwise He would be contradicting His own words when He said,
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:17–19 NASB
There’s a second witness of Yeshua’s opinion on this matter in the Gospel of Luke:
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.”
Luke 16:16–17 NASB
When Yeshua went into the wilderness after His baptism, the first temptation the Adversary presented to Yeshua was to tell Him to make bread out of stones and Yeshua replied in Matthew 4:4,
But he answered and said, “it is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’ (Deut. 8:6).”
Matthew 4:4 NASB
The whole experience is a part of trusting the LORD to depend on His daily bread and His living water, which are more important than literal bread and water. We know where we are going, we are not like those who have no hope at the end of our lives.
Didn’t Yeshua abolish the Law?
“For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them’ (Deut. 27:26).”
Gal. 3:10 NASB
We can know who are the true students of Yeshua when we see those who teach His Torah. We look to the warnings of Deuteronomy 13 not to follow someone who tells us that we no longer have to follow the Torah or blasphemes Yeshua and claims that He taught us that we don’t have to follow the Torah.
Yeshua at the beginning of His discourses on the Torah — Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) and Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17–36) — clearly stated that taking away from the Torah wasn’t His mission (Matt. 5:17–20; Luke 6:16:17).
These are a foundational statements for believers in Yeshua as the Anointed One of God, because The Prophet of God, and all of the true prophets, were to establish and uphold the Law, according to God’s words through the great prophet, Moshe, in Deuteronomy 6, 13 and 18. This is explored in greater detail here: Hallel.info/p45
Galatians can be thought of apostle Paul’s pre-Acts 15 teaching, and he wrote Romans after the matters of circumcision, etc. and salvation were resolved by the Jerusalem Council.
Proof texting into Romans is a dangerous thing to do. Paul’s letter to the Romans is a carefully crafted teaching with each precept standing on the precept before it. A prime example is in Gal. 3:10, which details the arguments in the fledgling Messiah movement over circumcision, which is elaborated on more fully in Rom. 2:17-29. The argument in Romans 2 is expanded in Romans 8.
| Topics discussed at the end of the recorded discussion | Start time |
|---|---|
| Q: What is iniquity? | 1:22:47 |
| Comment: Matt. 5:17-20; Luke 16:16-17 useful to answer antinomianism | 1:24:13 |
| Q: Did Yeshua fulfill the law or when will He? | 1:29:20 |
| Q: Which laws are we still supposed to follow? | 1:34:20 |
| Q: What about the Noachide laws? | 1:38:35 |
| Q: Luke 16:16 says Law and Prophets prophesied until John | 1:42:49 |
| Q: What does it mean that the Laodecians were ‘lukewarm’? | 1:45:06 |
New man = Sinai + Spirit
If you don’t understand that by the first century that the Jewish people had elevated circumcision to a much higher level than it is in the Torah, it’s hard to understand why Paul was so upset that Jewish believers were using it as a tool of exclusion rather than as a ritual to bring people closer to God. The spirit of God and the Law of God work together, not against each other.
Summary: Tammy